Most Wanted Ancestors

04/25/2010

My ancestry is very different from Michael's. It is rare that I have even two different states listed for birth/marriage/death of an individual. In fact, I can only find one that has three: Benjamin Wingate Hurd 1824-1904, born in N.H., married in Mass. and died in Kansas. And he's the one who ran away.

Michael on the other hand has all this pioneer ancestry and all he has are triple-baggers. Starting with his grandparents you find:

4. William Lynn Clark, b. Kansas, m. Oklahoma, d. Virginia

5. Ruth Berrigan, b. Wisconsin, m. Oklahoma, d. Maryland

6. John Wesley Ridpath b. Missouri, m. Oklahoma, d. California

7. Nell Carmon, b. m. Oklahoma, d. California [exception]

8. Charles Chester Clark, b. Ohio, m. Kansas, d. Oklahoma

9. Alice May Morrow, b. Missouri, m. Kansas, d. Oklahoma

10. Edmund Berrigan, b. New York, m. Michigan, d. Oklahoma

11. Johanna Morrissey, b. Penn., m. Michigan, d. Oklahoma

12. Daniel Burton Ridpath, b. Iowa, m. Missouri, d. Texas

13. Vida Hamlin Clarkson, b. Wisconsin, m. Missouri, d. Texas

14. James M. Carmon, b. Missouri, m. Texas or Oklahoma, d. Oklahoma

15. Elizabeth Hall, b. Missouri, m. Texas or Oklahoma, d. Oklahoma

So, as you can see three of his four grandparents and all of his great-grandparents fit into this category.

Amazingly, I can continue on. And these are all the ones I found. At this point, I can either connect them to the east coast family or they become brick walls themselves or in the following generation [not counting the Irish which are their own problem]. No. 24's mother can't be traced; No. 25's mother can't be traced; up to now No. 26's father couldn't be traced, but I think I have a line on him; No. 28's mother can't be traced; and nos. 29, 30, and 31 are their own brick walls. [No. 31's father is known, mother is not known and his ancestry can't be traced readily.]

In the cases where I can trace them it is because there is a Clark, Morrow, Clarkson, Berkley, Carman, Ridpath and Straughn secondary genealogy already done. All I had to do was verify the information. And even then, wives for these people cannot be traced readily in one or more generations back. And remember most of these records are held at the county level and not the state, so you need to be much more precise in your research. Lastly, some of these people were four and five state baggers who lived in states where they didn't have a b/m/d but you can see them in censuses. That's a lot of movement for people who lived (on average) from 1800 to 1930.

04/01/2010

I call this an imperfect search for many reasons. In a perfect world the Kittery, Maine vital records and church records would be combined in one work, either in print or online, and searchable and/or indexed by first name. But that world doesn't exist. The next best thing is to search Ancestry.com's public trees which you can do by first name, state of birth and year of birth. You must search year by year. Now, you need hip boots to do this because what you find most of the time is sh** dreck. Again, it's an imperfect system. However, in the last thirty years, I'm guessing that we've hit some sort of critical mass on the entries in to personal databases of most of the information available in print. The results of searching the name Deborah, born in Maine from 1754 back to 1742 follow. What is given is: Surname/Birth Place/Husband/Number of Trees. I was amazed, although I shouldn't be, that so many people entered material so badly. Although I said Maine, I got births from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and England. No, I'm not kidding. England. Somersetshire. More than once.

Webber, b. York, m. Paul Curtis: 47 [I particularly liked this one because the mother was named Meribah, a name Deborah (---) Wallis used for her second daughter. However, this woman clearly married Paul Curtis and I even both on Findagrave.]

Deborah Ingersoll, b. 1744 in Kittery, daughter of John and Sarah (Tucker) Ingersoll

Starting with 44 separate Deborahs (some of whom are listed twice), only two are from Kittery, although York is close enough to call it Kittery. In fact, Jonathan Sargent's land in York is described as abutting the Kittery town line. Isn't Deborah Ingersoll, the same as the Deborah "Ingerson" who married William "Preast" on 15 July 1774 at the South Church in Portsmouth [NEHGR 82:290]? And isn't Deborah Sargent the woman who married John Andros (i.e. Andrews) on 1 November 1772 at Georgetown, Maine? [Marriage Returns of Lincoln County, Maine to 1866 ed. Kelley and Adams (Camden, Me.: Picton Press, 2001), p. 13] Indeed, known daughter Ruth Sargent married in Georgetown as well in 1767. Eliminating those two leaves us with just Deborah Berry. From 44 candidates to 1 in an imperfect search system.

03/29/2010

Last week we had the mystery of who owned "grandfather Smith's" Bible that was mentioned in a will in 1910. Now we have who owns the Bible of Benjamin York 1761-1845 of Nottingham, Middleton, and Holderness, N.H. His clue is given in his American Revolution Pension papers dated 8 September 1832 [#S7999]. It clearly gives his birth as 14 January A.D. 1761 a record of which is in "my Bible." I've seen online and in print the exact dates of birth of some of his ten children. We have Benjamin's birth from his pension records; his marriage from a church record; and his death from a newspaper record. He left no probate papers. So, if you see this Bible, please let me know.

03/27/2010

I remember back when I made the transition from part-time hobbyist pursuing his ancestry to hard-core genealogist, that I attended several lectures by noted genealogists, many of whom became my friends, about how to take that next step in research. Mind you, this was back in the day, i.e. no Internet. Practically no computers. I learned deed research. Probate research--not just wills, but guardianship papers and administration papers. I learned about all the sources most people never used outside of birth, marriage, and death records. I thought and believed that if you just worked hard enough and sought out all these records, you would make the necessary breakthroughs to continue your research.

I understand now how much bullshit that all was. They should have included a class that said: Someday you will not be able to prove your ancestry beyond a certain point. And then comes the day when all your ancestors are either fully-researched or blocked. Those that are blocked will always be blocked. At this point you need to either (a) find a new hobby; (b) become a professional genealogist and do other people's genealogy. And, indeed, those who are truly hooked move on to do their spouse's ancestry; their in-laws; their neighbors, their pets, etc. I can see why people move on to medieval genealogy as well. One or two good gateway ancestors can lead to several more hundred years' worth of ancestry and research that is still yours.

But what can we honestly expect? I've long suspected that Jacobus and his entire generation of genealogists got off scott free. All they had to do was correct the worst genealogical errors of the preceding generation, which were legion. It doesn't take much effort to turn an F paper into a C+ paper. Even if most of the Jacobus/Davis/Holman, etc. researchers rank at B grade work, it still doesn't let them off the hook, that they took the lowest hanging fruit for genealogy and published it. When I look at what I know about my own ancestry and the lines that are already in print, it is largely those three and some others that did it all. So, if they hadn't done that, I would be making discovery after discovery using deeds and probates. I don't because they already did it.

So, I'm stuck with these brick walls. And I really thought, on the whole, it was just that these families were either un-researched or under-researched. However, I've come to the conclusion that there just are no records to adequately prove the relationships. You can guess. You can make elaborate preponderance of the evidence arguments. But you can't prove by standard genealogical principles the relationships. Therefore, you can't either join lineage organizations or you can't move on (with a clear conscience). You're stuck. Forever.

I guess the argument can be made that there is always something new, even within your own family, to research. I can put down all my 18th and 19th century brick walls forever and concentrate on other things such as English origins of 17th century immigrants. However, it galls me to do so. There is something highly unsatisfactory about leaving behind a problem in 1814 to pursue a 1610 problem.

I just hate wasting my time. And energy. There should be some sort of (*) by the names of people that can never be solved.

03/18/2010

In his will dated 16 February 1709/10, David Lawrence named a number of family members including "my brother Benjamin Taylor." [New Hampshire State Papers 31:649-51]. One of the witnesses to David's will was William Taylor who signed by mark. There are three ways for David Lawrence and Benjamin Taylor to be brothers in the sense of familial connection: (i) David married Benjamin's sister; (ii) Benjamin married David's sister; or (iii) David and Benjamin married sisters.

Benjamin Taylor was the son of William and Anne (Wythe) Taylor. Anne's last name is variantly given as Wythe or Wise and she was the daughter of Humphrey and Susan (Pakeman) Wythe whose English origins were published by Clifford Stott in The American Genealogist in 1993. Anne (Wythe) Taylor was baptized 18 October 1632 at Woolverstone, England. This is important because it becomes one of the known dates by which we can place people chronologically in this family. The last of Anne's two Taylor children's births are given at Exeter: Mary on 26 October 1667 and Nathan on 5 February 1674. Her other Taylor children, including Benjamin must have been older. These dates rule out the possibility that David Lawrence married Mary Taylor as many, if not most, web sites have. David's eldest daughter Phebe married on 29 November 1696 at Stratham to Thomas Rawlings (Jr.). A woman born in 1667 would have had to marry at 14 (1681) and have a daughter at 15 (1682) who would in turn be only 14 when married in 1696. Not bloody likely.

That eliminates possibility #1 for the relationship between David Lawrence and Benjamin Taylor. Benjamin Taylor has three sons: Nathan, Benjamin and Edward. Based on their respective marriage and death dates they were born ca. 1696, ca. 1700 and ca. 1705. Benjamin and his wife, Rachel were therefore married ca. 1695. They in turn were born say ca. 1670 (give or take). Since Benjamin's birth is unrecorded between Mary and Nathan Taylor, it is more likely that he was born directly before Mary or ca. 1665. Rachel (---) is still born ca. 1670. David Lawrence is recorded first when he bought land in 1674. That probably makes him at least 21 years old and likely older since he had to have made the money to buy the land (one assumes). So David is born ca. 1650. This makes him about 60 when he makes his will. Although possible, if on opposite spectrums of the sibling list (i.e. David the eldest and Rachel the youngest), it doesn't seem that David and Rachel (---) were siblings either and seem to be of different generations.

That leaves us with the last possibility. David Lawrence and Benjamin Taylor married two women who themselves were sisters. So we are looking for two sisters, one named Mary born ca. 1655 and the other Rachel born ca. 1670, who are otherwise not given husbands in the literature available on 17th century New Hampshire people. It should be do-able. Of course, this brings up, yet again, my thoughts on better searching techniques for women. I should be able to search a database for a Rachel born 1665-1675 in New Hampshire and get a list. Then I can crosscheck it for those with a sister Mary. It should be (theoretically) easy to do.

David and Mary (---) Lawrence's daughter Phebe (Lawrence) Rawlings appears in my ancestry three times, so it would be great to figure out her mother's maiden name.

N.B. By using the imperfect way of searching Ancestry.com's trees year by year (1664-1675) for a Rachel, the only one available with a sister Mary are the daughters of John Bruster (i.e. Brewster) of Portsmouth, N.H. who left a will in 1691 wherein he mentions several daughters by first name only. Not a bad choice for research since the Bruster family has had practically no real research done on it since the mid 1800s when a notorious descendant forged deeds and altered real Portsmouth 17th century documents to tie John Bruster with the Mayflower passenger William Brewster. Most people either believe the malarkey or have a hard time sifting through the records for what is real and not forged.

03/15/2010

You could write an entire posting about the madness pertaining to Nova Scotia vital records. They decided to have province- wide vital records in 1864 and then discontinued them after 1876. They would start again in 1908. If you have Nova Scotian ancestry then you experience the frustration of events that happened between 1876 and 1908 and breath a sigh of relief for those events between 1864 and 1876. [They are searchable online and free.]

Samuel Pratt was born in 1818 in Upper Stewiace, Nova Scotia, the son of Samuel and Catherine (McKenzie) Pratt. He married Rebecca Denny Thompson on 29 January 1842 at Londonderry [Vital Statistics from Halifax Newspapers, 1840-1843 by Jean M. Holder (Halifax: Genealogical Association of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1985)], she the daughter of Joshua and Mary (Spencer) Thompson.

They are listed in the 1891 Canadian census together, living in Lower Londonderry, he aged 73, she aged 71, both Baptist, with their son Alexander and his two daughters. It also notes that both his mother and father were born in Nova Scotia. Samuel appears in the Nova Scotia Directory for the years 1892, 1896 and 1897, but not in 1902. He is not listed in the 1901 census either. He deeded his farm to his son Alexander in 1896 [Colchester Co. Deeds 96:620].

His wife is listed as a widow in the U.S. census for 1900, living with her daughter Nellie (Ellen) Allen in Westbrook, Maine. [Cumberland Co., Me., ED #83, Page 15]. This record says she came to the U.S. in 1892. Of course, that's the same answer as her daughter and son-in-law. Hmmmm. According to Ellen's marriage certificate from 1894 in Maine, her father's residence was New Brunswick. I can find no obituary or death notice for Samuel. Even his wife's death is reported in the Londonderry Times despite her dying in Maine. Samuel's ultimate end is not known.

I have a very complete picture of this couple except for that one fact. Rebecca's nephew, Gideon Thompson, kept a diary and spoke of his uncle and aunt. A descendant of Gideon's contacted me a while back and shared his diary with me. Also three of the four parents of this couple had the decency to die between 1864 and 1876, thus helping me to push back easily two (or more) generations.

03/13/2010

John4CROMWELL was born ca. 1700 at Dover, the son of Joshua3 (Philip2 Giles1) and Lydia (---) Cromwell. John married at Dover on 26 December 1720, Mary RIDLEY, of unknown parentage. [Vital Records of Dover, NH 1686-1850 by the Dover Historical Society (Heritage Books, Bowie, MD, 1990), p. 11] There is no Ridley family in Dover, or for that matter, in early New Hampshire. There is one Ridley family in all of New England, which starts on Cape Cod and eventually moves to Maine. If Mary was a part of this family, her place in it has not yet been found. There is also some doubt as to the validity of the transcription of the marriage record. Outside of this record Mary never appears. By 23 May 1735 his wife's name is Lydia [NHPD 25:140]. Whether Mary died between 1720 and 1735 is not known.

John was a tinker. On 3 April 1752 in two deeds, John quitclaims his "father Joshua Cromwell's land." [NHPD 45:248 and 70:326]. John was not a religious man. John and Lydia may have died the same day at Dover on 11 May 1776 [Dover VRs, p. 189, which notes John Cromwell and his wife.] However, in his diary, Master Tate notes "Mr. John Cromwell of Dover Dyed on Saturday May ye 11th 1776 & Lydia his wife dy'd on Monday, May 13, 1776. Both Buried in One Grave. [NEHGR 74(1920):191]

It appears that he had only three children who lived to adulthood. On 26 March 1794, Abner and Keziah Coffin deeded to the Widow Sarah Chaddock (i.e. Chadwick), land in Dover that belonged to John Cromwell, deceased. [Strafford Co. Deeds 17:326]. One of the witnesses to the deed was Philip Cromwell.

Children of John4 and Lydia (---) Cromwell, all born at Dover, N.H.:

i. Keziah5, born about 1740. She married ca. 1760, Abner5COFFIN, son of Abner4 (Stephen3 Tristram2-1) and Mary (Rawlings) Coffin. Keziah died after 26 March 1794 when she deeds land and likely before 1800 when Abner is enumerated alone in the 1800 census at Freeport, Maine. Abner was born 25 April 1738 at Exeter, N.H. and died 21 February 1811 at Freeport. [Freeport, Maine Town Records: Births, Deaths, and Marriages 1795-1835 p. 331, on microfilm at NEHGS Library in Boston, Mass.] He was a blacksmith. Four known children, of which I descend from two eldest: Rebecca, Anna, Stephen, and Mary.

ii. Sarah5, born about 1745, died at Dover after 26 March 1794. She married there on 14 May 1778, Jacob CHADWICK. [Dover VRs, p. 79]. Very likely the parents of William Chadwick of Somersworth, with whom Sarah seems to be living in both the 1790 and 1800 censuses.

iii. Benjamin5, born about 1747, died at Dover before 10 February 1772 when administration on his estate was granted to his father John Cromwell, of Dover, yeoman. [Rockingham Co. Probate #3908] Sureties on the estate were Philip Cromwell and William Young, both of Dover. Benjamin was a mariner.

03/08/2010

I briefly wrote about the mysterious Sedeny Tilley, who is the second wife of my ancestor Samuel4 (William3-2 George1) Wallis. In addition to their marriage record, I discovered this deed. On 1 January 1793, Sidna Wallace of Barrington widow, for 60 pounds sold to Thomas Glass of Nottingham, land in Barrington, 35 acres 1/2 lot formerly owned by Samuel Tilley of Barrington. She signed by mark as "Sibna Wallace". [rec. 2 May 1793, Strafford Co. Deeds 15:518]. So the three times her name appears in records it is Sedeny, Sidna or Sibna. I'm guessing this is a variant of Sabena.

She is the presumed daughter of Samuel and Jane (---) Tilley who were living in Durham, N.H. There is only one deed (no grantee at all) for this man: Samuel Tilley of Durham, collier, dated 7 June 1738 where he sells his proprietors share of Canterbury to a Prendergast of Portsmouth. His wife Jane releases dower on the deed. [NHPD 24:526]. Somewhere there is a Tilley family where the son Samuel is given the genealogists death knell of "no further records." Well, I know where he went. Or he is a 18th century immigrant through Portsmouth. All we can say is that out of nowhere there is this Tilley family in Strafford County, N.H.

02/19/2010

There are all sort of brick walls in research. Sometimes you have no idea of where to go next, i.e., no parents' names at all. Sometimes there are names, but you have no idea of the place. Sometimes you have a good idea of who the parents were, but you cannot find proof of the relationship. It is this category with which I want to take issue.

Been there, done that, got all the T-shirts. I discussed some of this in this posting. I remember needing a Polly Dudley available to marry my Amos Learned on 10 December 1818 at Dublin, N.H. [Index to births, marriages & deaths registered in Dublin, NH 1760-1990 by Nancy E. Campbell and John W. Harris (Dublin, NH: The Archives 1991), p. 13 and 34.] Polly is a diminutive of Mary, so I was searching both Pollys and Marys born ca. 1787 based on Polly's age in the 1850 census. I narrowed my search to a Polly Dudley, the daughter of Nahum5 (Joseph4 Benjamin3 Joseph2 Francis1) and Margaret (Howe) Dudley of Westmoreland, N.H. She was unresearched as was her entire family. I worked on this for a good couple of years, but could never find the proof I needed. Finally, I knew I was barking up the wrong tree, because in her mother's probate papers, she signed her name, whereas my Polly always signed deeds by mark.

Defeated, I asked my friend, Marshall for some advice. He noted that she named a child Josiah Dudley Learned. As Marshall pointed out, she did not choose that name from a hat. In fact, her last three children all had family names, the other two being Calvin Sanger Learned and Abiah Russell Learned [my great3-grandmother]. Calvin Sanger (after whom Sangerville, Maine was named) was a cousin from Sherborn, Mass. Russell was the maiden name of Amos's maternal grandmother. So, six or so years later, I still lack proof for Polly's parentage. So, now the situation is this: (i) the proof doesn't exist; (ii) the proof does exist, but I'm looking in the wrong places; or (iii) there's no proof because the relationship didn't exist in the first place. I'm beginning to think that option #iii is a distinct possibility. So, now I need to wipe out all my preconceived and long-held notions--totally purge my thoughts, and start over with what I really know.

The Truth About Polly:

Amos Learned married Polly Daniels on 10 December
1818 in Dublin, New Hampshire.This marriage record appears in the New Hampshire vital records, and is
likely a late submission to the state from the town records of Dublin, which
also notes the marriage.[1]Dublin is noted at the residence of
both bride and groom and no parents are given for either.This marriage also appears in the
records of Justice of the Peace, John Snow, where the couple is listed as Amos
Learned and Dolly Daniels, both of Dublin on 10 December 1818.[2]

This couple appears in three secondary sources.In the 1967 Learned Genealogy, the bride is called Polly (Dudley) Daniels and the
year of the marriage is incorrectly given as 1817.[3]This work is largely based on the 1882 Learned
Genealogy which contains the same
information.[4]Tracing back even further, this 1882
genealogy must have relied on the 1855 History of Dublin, which notes the marriage as just 1818 and calls the
bride Hannah Daniels.[5]The question becomes, was Polly a
Dudley or a Daniels?

After her marriage to Amos, Polly had two children
born in Dublin:Amos (Jr.) on 20
June 1819 and Louisa on 27 October 1820.[6]Polly released her dower rights
on several Cheshire Co. deeds between 1819 and 1821, in each of which she was
called Polly B. Learned and signed with a mark.[7]None of these deeds provided any clues
to her parents.There are no deeds
in which she was either a grantee or grantor in her own right.Shortly after February 1821, Amos and
Polly removed to Weld, Maine, where they had four more children:Jesse, born 10 December 1821, Josiah
Dudley, born 4 December 1822, Calvin Sanger, born 19 August 1824, and Abiah
Russell, born 5 June 1830.[8]
Polly and Amos were living with their son Calvin in Canton, Maine in 1850.She was aged 63 years; Amos was aged 69
years, and both were described as born in New Hampshire.[9]By 1855, Amos was living in Hopkinton,
Massachusetts, and Polly was not with him, presumably having died between 1850
and 1855.[10]

[4] William Law
Learned and Joseph G.E. Larned, The Learned family (Learned, Larned, Learnard
and Lerned) being descendants of William Learned who was of Charlestown,
Massachusetts in 1632 (Albany, NY, J.
Munsell, 1882), p. 118.

01/04/2010

Mary Jane is one of the two great-greats for Michael who has no known parents. This is partly her fault for marrying prior to the 1850 U.S. census where she first appears with her husband rather than her parents at the delicate age of 20 born in Illinois [1850 U.S. Federal Census for Dade County, Missouri, District No. 25]. She is there with her husband George Carmon and part of his father's family [Joshua and Susannah (Bailey) Carman]. By 1860, this couple had moved to Collin County, Texas, Precinct No. 3 and Mary is listed as age 30, birthplace unknown. [1860 U.S. Federal Census for Collin County, Texas, Page 97]. This family falls out of the 1870 census, or I can't locate them. Their youngest son, born in 1869, claims that he was born in Indian Territory, i.e. Oklahoma. Perhaps the family was living there and there is no census for the "Indian Territory." In 1880, they are back in Texas this time in Grayson County, she age 50, born in Illinois, with a father born in North Carolina and a mother born in Tennessee. [1880 U.S. Census Texas, E.D. 13, Page 22] And that's all the records it seems she generated that I have found to date.

Her husband died in Oklahoma on 18 November 1897. This is from his gravestone record at Falls Cemetery, Cleveland County, Oklahoma. He is buried with his son, Michael's great-grandfather, but his wife is not there. She is not living with that son in the 1900 census.

So, we have no vital records for her at all. She married probably in 1849 or early 1850 either in Dade County, Missouri, or somewhere close by. It is there I would start. We know her maiden name from the death records of two of her children. There are about 15-20 men named Cox living in Missouri, born in North Carolina in the 1850 census who could be potential fathers.

This is an easily solvable problem if one could only do a broad search across geographical areas. But then, of course, if it were that easy, it wouldn't be genealogy.